Well, I must admit that last year and this year, when I saw the annoucement of discoveries of supernova, I got all excited. Then, I noted something like "it has brightened to magnitude 13" something. Brighten ;-)? Thus, I've simply been ignored super nova discoveries.
Well, I've been catching up on reading S&T and stumbled across the March 2002 article entitle "Nova Hunters" by none other than one of my most favorite author, O'Meara ;-). I was shocked to find out that Pereira had discovered quite a few nova through his 14 x 100 binos. Why, that's very darn close to 102mm aperture of my TV-102! Wow! I
used to think that such dim stellar explosion can only be discovered by someone standing on a ladder of a huge light bucket or something similar.
I was convinced that the whole heavenly sky has been plowed clean and that there is **not a single** stellar "bread crump" left for the small dingy scope (such as 4" refractor) to discover in the 21st century! Talking about being born way too late, I thought. Was I irrevocably wrong? Are there other examples?
Ron B[ee]
Well, I've been catching up on reading S&T and stumbled across the March 2002 article entitle "Nova Hunters" by none other than one of my most favorite author, O'Meara ;-). I was shocked to find out that Pereira had discovered quite a few nova through his 14 x 100 binos. Why, that's very darn close to 102mm aperture of my TV-102! Wow! I
used to think that such dim stellar explosion can only be discovered by someone standing on a ladder of a huge light bucket or something similar.
I was convinced that the whole heavenly sky has been plowed clean and that there is **not a single** stellar "bread crump" left for the small dingy scope (such as 4" refractor) to discover in the 21st century! Talking about being born way too late, I thought. Was I irrevocably wrong? Are there other examples?
Ron B[ee]
